So we are filing now all day long. We are
sort of AP and ;e New York Times all
rolled into one. Now we have an editor
and a reporter coming in at 6 a.m., and
we have the night team there usually until
midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m. So the bureau is
basically operating close to 24 hours. We
have six White House correspondents
now—when I was covering the White
House, it was just two of us. What’s also
changed is that we are much tougher
about calling out falsehoods from the
president. In the old days you would say,
‘the president said this, but Democrats
said this.’ We don’t do that anymore. And
we have a full-time fact-checker, as well,
who writes fact checks almost every day.

She is kept very busy by Trump.Why are you ‘much tougher’?

If the president is saying something over
and over again, when he is going against
the statistics of his own government,
you’ve got to point that out right away. You
can’t just say, ‘he said.’ You have to say, ‘he
falsely said.’ I think it’s a good formulation,
especially when the numbers are coming
from his own government.

Is there any hesitancy? Any concernthat you are crossing a line?

I don’t feel like we are crossing the line,
no. I think it’s worse to say, ‘the president
said,’ like it’s true. Trump has uttered so
many obvious falsehoods, so often, that
to just report what he said, like we have
covered other presidents, seems like a
falsehood in itself.

Chuck Todd [moderator of NBC’sMeet the Press] talks about the press‘fighting back’ against Trump. Do youthink that you are fighting back?

No. We are not the resistance. We are
not the opposition. We are not in a fight
with the administration. We are doing
our jobs. We are aggressively, thoroughly, fairly reporting on the White
House and the Trump administration.

;at is how we see it.Why do you reject the idea of ‘fight-ing back’?

Because it undermines our credibility

Thank you to Interim HealthCare of Montgomery County and
Michael and Shannon Priddy for providing scholarships to
Montgomery College students pursuing careers as certified
nursing assistants.

Since 2015, 14 students have been empowered to pursue
careers as certified nursing assistants or in other health care
fields, thanks to the Michael and Shannon Priddy Health
Sciences Scholarship.

This gift not only improves lives, but also helps to address an
anticipated shortage of health care workers to meet the needs
of our region’s growing population.

Gifts like the ones from Interim HealthCare of Montgomery
County and Michael and Shannon Priddy open the doors to
an education and a better life so that people and our
community thrive!

David SearsSenior Vice President for Advancement and Community Engagementdavid.sears@montgomerycollege.edu

240-567-7492montgomerycollege.edu/foundationThank You forMaking a Difference